Tennant's Extra

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Publication: Daily Express
Date: 2013-11-23
Author: Olly Grant
Page: Saturday Magazine, p. 8
Language: English

David Tennant is back for an epic 50th anniversary Doctor Who adventure, also starring Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Billie Piper and John Hurt

You have to hand it to the crew of Doctor Who. They know how to keep a secret. We're on a set tour for tonight's anniversary special, The Day Of The Doctor, but if we were hoping for clues about one of the year's most eagerly-anticipated dramas, we've been thwarted. The tour begins in the TARDIS and ends in a "space farm", a sort of olde worlde barn filled with alien-looking agricultural equipment.

A hidey-hole for the Doctor and Clara as they fee the Daleks, maybe? The answer's out there. It's just not being divulged. Not by our guide, lead writer Steven Moffat, and certainly not by current Doctor Mat Smith.

"We would tell you, but if we did you would never see us again," laughs Matt, 31, when we meet at the show's heavily-fortifited Cardiff HQ. "That would be it. We'd be locked up somewhere, never allowed out."

Every Doctor Who episode comes charged with secrecy and anticipation, but none more so than tonight's 75-minute storyline. It's exactly half a century since the TARDIS frst appeared in our living rooms in 1963, helmed by the inimitable William Hartnell - and the Beeb hasn't been shy about celebrating that remarkable milestone.

The Day Of The Doctor, which sees the return of 10th Doctor David Tennant, former companion Rose (Billie Piper) and old foes the Daleks, will be beamed live to more than 70 countries at 7.50pm. More fans will be watching in cinemas across the UK, where the action will be in 3D - a first in Who history.

"I think for scale it's one of the biggest we've ever done," Mat admits. "Having David and Billie back sprinkles a bit of fairy dust on it. But then also things like the 3D and the cinema release... it's as big as we've gone in a number of directions."

The story opens when Clara (Jenna Coleman) pops into the TARDIS to see the Doctor. But when something nasty "awakens" at Te National Gallery, the pair find themselves relocated to London, via helicopter, by military chief Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), so hastily the Doctor is left hanging from the TARDIS's underbelly as the craft roars off.

Doctor Who anniversary specials have a tradition of reuniting Time Lords, most famously in 1983's The Five Doctors.

Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston turned down the chance to appear in the 50th anniversary show but David Tennant is very much back. Te 10th Doctor will meet the 11th Doctor when he returns to face the Zygons (last seen in the 1970s), who appear in 1500s England to do battle with Queen Elizabeth I (Gavin & Stacey's Joanna Page, who manages to squeeze in a passionate kiss with David's Doctor).

David, 42, says there was never any question about whether he would answer the call of duty.

"The expectation had been I'd end up in this special because there is a precedent for old Doctors coming back for a visit around anniversary time," he says. "I can remember when The Five Doctors was on.

It was electrically exciting."

Disappointingly, David says being flung into the same TARDIS as Matt didn't result in a titanic clash of the superegos.

"I think people almost expected us to be at loggerheads, but we've really enjoyed it," he says. "It's delicious to be handed a situation that's completely new and a character meeting a version of himself is not something you come across a lot in drama. So to get to play that with someone as talented and as quick and brilliant as Mat is nothing short of jolly good fun."

Time Lord antagonism is just one of the joys of the specials.

"I think there will always be a bit of that," agrees Mat. "They've got to size each other up. Maybe it depends on the actors.

I heard a couple of them didn't get on. Me and David get on really well but I think there's always got to be a sense of 'mine's bigger than yours' and whose TARDIS is faster? Whose TARDIS is the beter blue?"

Another fascinating development will be the reappearance of John Hurt, who popped up in May's fnale as a "forgotten" Doctor who had committed a terrible act in the past.

"One thing we wanted for the 50th was to say, 'Let's have some acting royalty on the show; left's have an actor who represents the stature of Doctor Who,'" Steven, 52, says.

"So to have John here and to have him so enthusiastic about it, was thrilling."

Steven admits to being influenced by the most recent 007 movie Skyfall.

"It has just enough nostalgia in it but it was also very clearly about newness and modernity," he says. "It's not enough to tell you about the past. It's also about the future. And so this episode is all about the Doctor."

In other words, the special won't be a series of fan-pleasing nods to the past ("it's not just going to be a parade of our greatest hits, you'll get that anyway"). It will "change the narrative" of Doctor Who itself.

"We want to ensure there's going to be a 100th anniversary so this is going to be a hugely important story to the Doctor," explains Steven. "That was my mission statement. It's very rare in Doctor Who that a story maters much to him at all. Usually he runs around, defeats a mutant space badger, saves a civilisation, causes epiphanies to happen in everybody he meets, rushes back to the TARDIS and forgets all about it. If you asked him, he might have a vague memory of the badger, but that's it. So my intention was to move things forward, to have a show that is equally about the next 50 years of Doctor Who. It's about proving we've many more stories to tell, and in a way being able to say, 'The story really starts here...'"

"IT'S ONE OF THE BIGGEST SPECIALS WE'VE EVER DONE. HAVING DAVID TENNANT AND BILLIE PIPER BACK SPRINKLES A BIT OF FAIRY DUST ON IT AND THEN THERE'S THINGS LIKE THE 3D AND CINEMA RELEASE... MATT SMITH"

DOCTOR WHO: THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR, TONIGHT, 7.50PM, BBC1

GRAPHIC: Left: Gavin & Stacey's Joanna Page plays Queen Elizabeth I

Forgotten Doctor John Hurt with Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. Right: Matt Smith with Jenna Coleman

Tennant's Extra

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